Barcelos

There’s little on first view to suggest that the small town of BARCELOS is in any way special – it has a few historical sights, a small medieval centre and an attractive riverside location, and in the normal run of things you might be persuaded to give it half a day. But the truly enormous square in the centre, the Campo da Feira, provides pause for thought, and all becomes clear if you turn up on a Thursday, when you’ll coincide with the Feira de Barcelos, a gigantic open-air market with few equals in Europe, let alone Portugal.

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Campo da Feira

The vast Campo da Feira houses Barcelos’ market every Thursday from dawn onwards – it’s been held here since at least the early fifteenth century and, save a few modern refinements, there’s still much that a medieval market-trader might recognize. Today the Feira may have its own Facebook page, but the close-set rows of modest smallholders offering up their surplus produce have surely changed little over the centuries. Beyond the fruit and veg, eggs, olives, herbs, cheeses, cured meats, breads and pastries there’s the supporting framework of an entire rural economy on display here, from agricultural implements and animal yokes to chainsaws and wine-making gear – not to mention piles of cheap clothes, big pants, €10 jeans, counterfeit sportswear, lengths of cloth, brassy Portuguese pop CDs and rustic crafts. The local terracotta, white and yellow pottery – the louças de Barcelos – is a big deal, while Barcelos backs up its self-appointed role as “Capital do Artesanato” with a full array of other crafts, from earthenware figurines to traditional basketwork. The market is, in short, as valid a reason to visit Barcelos as you could want – if you can, stay the night before and make a real trip of it, then set your alarm clock for dawn and mingle with the stallholders as they set up for another timeless day at the feira.

The Barcelos Cock

The legend goes that a Galician pilgrim, en route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, was wrongly arrested for a crime in Barcelos and sentenced to hang. En route to the gallows, the pilgrim was escorted to the magistrate’s house to make one final plea. The judge and his friends were sitting down to a roast dinner, at which the pilgrim proclaimed “As surely as I am innocent, that cock will crow if I am hanged”. Up rose the bird from the table and the pilgrim was saved. This tale of the “Cock of Barcelos” – its scenes sculpted onto a cross in the town’s archeological museum – has endured over the centuries to become a real Portuguese emblem, and you’ll see the symbol all over the country, from the ubiquitous rooster-shaped ceramic figures to images reproduced on tea-towels and ornaments.